Soybean The Stolen Dog--How the Artist Community Came Together to Find Him

January 02, 2020

Soybean The Stolen Dog--How the Artist Community Came Together to Find Him

Lost Dog

This holiday season was a very memorable one for the owners of Soybean, a 16-year-old Boston Terrier. L.A. area artist Esao Andrews and designer and maker Clare Herron utilized Instagram for help with finding Soybean when he was stolen from their car along with other items. Soybean is a senior dog, missing an eye, and in need of medication, and his disappearance prompted an outpouring of support from coast to coast in the artist community. From social media sharing to offering a reward to a drone search, the couple explored every avenue they could think of (and every one others suggested) to bring Soybean home.

The Silver Lake pair have around 127,000 followers on Instagram alone, and their fans near and wide showed support by sharing their posts about Soybean’s disappearance, as well as helping with local search efforts and donating funds towards reward money, Facebook ads, and paid Amber alerts. Many of their social media following are artists, or closely tied to the artist community nationwide, thus it wasn’t uncommon to see Soybean’s Lost ad circulating among hundreds of thousands of people online, including celebrities, who also took part in sharing it.

Home for the Holidays

Despite the efforts of so many people on the ground and online looking and sharing and hoping for Soybean’s return, he wasn’t found as a direct result of them. A random kind stranger ended up spotting Soybean in an alley and brought him home to his family to care for him. Later, Soybean’s tag was discovered inside his harness, so the family member called the number. The family wasn’t aware of the $5,000 reward and wouldn’t accept the money. Esao and Clare donated the $5k to rescues and supporters and then set up a GoFundMe for the family to help them in the new year. What a beautiful story birthed from a community of creators of beautiful things.

"Something so incredibly tragic that brought people from all over the world together ended up having the most wonderful outcome. Everyone just wanted Soybean home with his family. It’s the type of thing that fills your heart with magic." - Kate Zambrano (Trekell Pro Team Artist who helped with hanging flyers.)